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Kansas 



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Eightieth Thousand 






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Passenger Department 

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AtcHison, TopeKa (SL Santa Fe 

Rail^vay Company 

1902 

Ad. Ih 2-10-02. 20M. 



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THE RJULKOJiB'S STORY. 



Of the many thousands of persons who have 
heard about Kansas, only a comparatively small 
, number possess any correct notion of the State 
'i and her resources. Some appear to believe it is a 
[<3— State whose visible assets are drouths, cyclones, 
blizzards, crop failures and cranks. It is hoped 
. a perusal of the following pages will help correct 
f^ such erroneous impressions. An attempt has 
[^_p been made to describe matters as they are and by 
candid statem.ents of fact to demonstrate to the 
agriculturist (using the term in its more compre- 
hensive sense) that he can do better in Kansas 
than in most of the States of the Union. 

The year 1899 '^'^'^^s a very prosperous one and 
few localities can justly complain of the manner 
in which bountiful nature fulfilled her obliga- 
tions, o Kansas in 1899 raised almost eleven per 
cent, of the country's total corn supply and nearly 
eight per cent, of the wheat; in 1900, eight per 
cent, of the corn, and sixteen per cent, of the 
wheat, while 1901, a year lean for many, proved 
the most profitably productive in agricultural 
values that has ever been recorded in the State's 
history, the wheat crop alone being worth on the 
farms where grown over 506 million dollars, 
and its yield aggregating considerably over 
90,000,000 bushels, of highest quality, the largest 
output of this life-giving cereal ever garnered by 
any State in any year. 

In the pages that follow, actual conditions are 
concisely set forth, and it is believed the tabu- 
lated statements of quantities and values will 
prove serviceable to earnest and interested in- 
quirers. 

When it is considered that Kansas still has 
rnany thousands of acres unsubdued and uncul- 
tivated, and that the recorded quantities and 
values of products represent only the output of 
a partially developed State, it speaks volumes 
tor the fertility and richnet>s of the portions now 



being worked. It is safe to say that just as good 
showings may be made in other sections of the 
State after they shall have had the same intelli- 
gent attention. 

The world has done honor to Joe Patchen and 
to John R. Gentry, as well as to many other 
remarkable specimens of horseflesh It will prob- 
ably astonish many outside of the race track 
coterie, and perhaps some of its members, to learn 
that both John R. Gentry and Joe Patchen are 
products of Kansas stock farms, and that 
Cresceus is of Kansas parentage. The heaviest 
fleece ever produced was clipped from a Kansas 
sheep. And so it goes. There are many other 
wonderful things that could be told of the pro- 
ducts of Kansas, but as Secretary F. D. Coburn, 
of the State Board of Agriculture, has so well 
written the story of the State as a whole, it would 
result only in needless repetition. f 

The railroad that has done most to advance 
the interests of Kansas, and the one that reaches 
more points in the State than any other line, is 
the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe Railway, 
which operates in sixty-four of the one hundred 
and five counties, and on whose lines are situated 
about eighty percent, of the principal cities. 

The sections producing Patchen, Gentry and 
Cresceus, the one with the record for wood clip- 
ping, as well as the points where exists the 
greatest activity in live-stock generally, are allj 
on the Santa Fe. One may reach via this line 
the scenes of Kansas' greatest agricultural 
growth as well as points where there are oppor- 
tunities for a profitable extension of the vast en- 
terprises in wiiich the farmer, the stockman and 
the horticulturist are engaged. 

It is also worthy of note that the State's new 
and promising industry of beet-raising for the 
manufacture of sugar is first being developed in 
exclusive Santa Fe territory, and encouraged by 
lastyeai's successes there probably will be in- 
creased activity displayed along the same line in 
the same section in 1902 and following years 
There is no other railroad in Kansas that can take, 
you direct to where these beets are grown, or to 
the manufactory at Rocky Ford, Colorado. 



II 



Through passenger trains from Chicago and 
Kansas City carry PuUman palace and tourist 
sleepers, free chair-cars and modern day coaches. 
The track is rock-ballasted and trains are pro- 
tected by the block signal system, a combination 
promoting comfort and safety. Dining-cars 
serve meals between Chicago and Kansas City 
on the plan of paying only for what you order. 
West of the Missouri River meals are served m 
dining-room.s reached at convenient hours, in 
which the charge is only 75 cents per mxeal. 

Kansas extends a warm vv^elcome to persons 
dissatisfied with present locations or conditions, 
and invites those desiring to purchase good 
farms at prices that are not prohibitive to come 
to the State and see for themselves her present 
advantages and splendid prospects. 

The purchaser of lands located within reach 
of the Santa Fe is certain of prompt, regular and 
quick service for the transportation of himself 
and of the products of his labor. Convenient 
train service is a desirable feature at all times 
and especially to farming and industrial com- 
munities. It is furnished all the territory 
served by the Santa Fe. If you want to be sure 
of profiting by the advantages that railroad facil- 
ities give, you should secure land on or closely 
adjacent to the line of the Santa Fe. 

Kansas is so situated as to form the point at 
which converge all the lines of this extensive 
system of railroad. This gives the State unex- 
celled transportation facilities to and from Illinois, 
Iowa, Missouri, Oklahoma, Indian Territory, 
Texas, Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona and Cal- 
ifornia, besides all that portion of the country 
lying beyond the borders of and naturally reached 
through the States and Territories mentioned. 

At frequent intervals, usually the first and 
third Tuesdays of each month, the Santa Fe sells 
round-trip homeseeker's excursion tickets to 
Kansas at one fare, plus $2, for the round trip. 
Tickets are good for twenty-one days and for 
stop-overs in certain prescribed territory. 

Correspondence with prospective sellers or tourists is in- 
vited. Write to W. J. Black, general passenger agent, To- 
peka, Kansas, or any Santa Fe representative, stating where 
yon desire to go, and ull information will be given concern- 
ing service and rates 

7 



Announcements 

THE articles following were written by 
Mr. F. D. Coburn, Secretary of the 
Kansas State Board of Agriculture, 
who has revised and corrected the data herein 
to embrace all of the year 1901. 

The reports of the Kansas State Board 
of Agriculture are recognized the w^orld over 
as authorities on the subjects treated thereby. 
They are not issued to boom any particular 
enterprise nor to misrepresent actual condi- 
tions. Tales of failures are told as faithfully 
and with the same absence of attempt at 
word-painting as are the statements of the 
State's unparalleled success. Their aim is 
to faithfully depict conditions just as they 
are — to tell the truth. For this reason the 
articles that follow are commended to the 
reader. Personal investigation will corrobo- 
rate the statements of Mr. Coburn. If you 
conclude to come to Kansas and settle, it is 
believed the result will confirm the wisdom of 
your choice. 

Illustrations are from photographs secured 
from the Kansas State Board of Agriculture 
and other sources. 




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K-^MSAS SURVEYED. 

LOCJiTION, SOIL, CLIMJITE, PRODUC- 
TIOMS JIMD PEOPLE. 



Agricultural Empire: Land of Moral Citizen* 

ship. Sobriety, Churches and Kindly 

Climate. 



This will doubtless come to the attention of 
thousands who know little or perhaps nothing 
of, or have at best but the vaguest ideas of 
Kansas or what the word signifies — whether the 
name of a country, district, colony or province; 
whether morass or mountain; whether forest or 
prairie ; a land of productivity or of barren 
waste. 

To those who would, but do not know, it 
may be said that the name implies a section of 
country 210 miles wide and 400 miles long, of 
52,000,000 acres, the core of a continent — mid- 
way between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, 
and also equidistant from the northern and 
southern boundaries of the United States of 
America, between the thirty-seventh and fortieth 
parallels. 

By some, her area may be better understood 
from the statement that Kansas, practically all 
arable, fertile land, is some 4 percent, wider in 
extent than England, 80 per cent, larger than 
Scotland, 70 per cent, larger than Ireland, and 
seven times greater than Wales. Others may 
grasp more readily the thought that either Den- 
mark or Switzerland is little more than a fourth 
as large, and the Netherlands are not one-fourth; 
that Belgium has not one-fourth her area, and 
Cuba but four-fifths, while the states of New 
York and Indiana, or Maine and Ohio, united, 
or all New England, with Delaware and Mary- 
land for company, could find resting room on 
her ample bosom. 

The surface of the State is that of a gently 
undulating plain, having a gradually increasing 

11 



altitude from 750 feet at the eastern limit to 
3,300 feet at the western or Colorado border. 
No mountains and no swamps find place in her 
topography. In soil there is much diversity, 
from the dark, deep loam of limestone land 
prevalent in the eastern third, to the "plains" 
and sandy formation to the westward, the latter 
being more especially common to the Southwest. 
Their comparative fertility is an unsettled prob- 
lem, as the possessor of either is satisfied that 
no other is quite so fertile as his own. 

Her climate is such as would be expected in 
such a zone and along such parallels, having 
neither tropic heat nor arctic cold. The official 
in charge of the United States Weather Service 
for Kansas furnishes the following as from his 
records covering the last fifteen years: 
Average temperature during three winter 
months — December, January and Feb- 
ruary 31^ 

Average temperature during the three summer 

m.onths— June, July and August 76.7° 

Average annual temperature for the State •••.54.2" 
The average annual rainfall in the eastern 
third of the State for fourteen years approxi- 
mates 34 inches, gradually decreasing further 
west. For the whole State the annual precipi- 
tation has averaged 26.42 inches 
For three winter months— Decem- 
ber, January and February 0.91 inches. 

For three summer months — June, 

July and August 3.26 inches. 

There were no white inhabitants' in Kansas 
in 1850; in 1856 there were less than 10,000, 
and in i860 but 107,000. At the enumera- 
tion, March, 1901, her population was 1,467,808. 
The State is divided into 105 counties; the 
largest of these in area is Butler, with 1,428 
square miles, and ranking seventeenth in popu- 
lation, with 22,802 inhabitants; the smallest 
county is Wyandotte, of 153 square miles, but 
first in population, with 74,267 inhabitants, and 
including Kansas City, the seat of the second 
largest live-stock market and also of the second 
most extensive meat-packing industries in the 

12 



world. In tliis market there were received and 
disposed of in the past year 2,126,575 cattle, 
3,714,404 hogs, 980,078 sheep, and 96,657 horses 
and mules. Of these there were driven out for 
slaughter at the local packing establishments 
1,242,289 cattle, 3,544,800 hogs, and 776,691 
sheep. 

In 1901 the State had, besides 202 colleges, 
academies and high schools, 9,406 free public 
schoolhouses, v/here 383,175 pupils were en- 
rolled, and 11,536 teachers employed at an 
annual outlay of $3,211,451 for salaries. The 
schoolhouses and school property are valued 
at something over $10,000,000. The State Uni- 
versity, at Lawrence, takes high rank among 
like institutions in the older states, and the 
same is true of the State Normal School, at 
Emporia, while the State Agricultural College, 
at Manhattan, is claimed to stand at the head 
of the list of the agricultural colleges in the 
United States, and therefore of the world, having 
enrolled about 1,300 students the present year, 
1902. The institution for the education of the 
deaf mutes of the State, at Olathe, reflects credit 
upon the State, while the same compliment is 
due to the school for the education of the blind, 
located at Kansas City. 

The number of church organizations aggre- 
gates about 6,000, having a membership of 
325,000 and property to the amount of $8,000,000. 

In the line of newspaper and periodical liter- 
ature there are now being issued and maintained 
within the State more than 830 publications, 
representing every county, and recording the 
history of the people of ail communities and 
neighborhoods. Of these, 50 are dailies, 638 
weeklies, 2 semi-weeklies, 115 monthlies 10 
semi-monthlies, i bi-monthly, 11 quarterlies and 
5 occasional. 

Of state, private and National Banks there 
are 541, having deposits aggregating over 
eighty-seven million dollars, making an average 
of $59. 28 for each inhabitant. 

In the main, Kansas laws are liberal and just. 
They favor sobriety, morality, industry, whole- 

13 



some living and home-making. While they in 
nowise oppose the rich, they do uphold, protect 
and encourage the poor man in his efforts to 
secure for himself and family a home. The 
manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, 
except for medical, scientific and mechanical 
purposes, is forever prohibited in the State, by 
constitutional provision adopted by the people 
at a general election in November, 1880. 

Of railroads, Kansas has but a trifle less than 
9,000 miles; this mileage is exceeded possibly in 
two or perhaps three other states. It is about 
the same as Italy, not quite half that of 
Great Britian and Ireland combined, slightly less 
than that of Spain and Switzerland together, 
and one-third that of all Germany. Of the 105 
counties, 100 have one or more railroads, and 
excepting seven, all county seats have one or 
more. There is an average of a mile of railway 
for each 160 of the inhabitants. The main lines 
are maintained in excellent condition, and the 
service is as good as may be found anywhere. 
Much of the main line track has been well 
ballasted with gravel, stone, cinders, slag or 
other superior material. Their earlier and lighter 
rails are constantly being replaced by those of 
heavier steel, joined by the best modern devices, 
so that the average speed found in any part of 
the country is here obtained with almost perfect 
safety, injuries from train derailments or other 
like accidents being comparatively infrequent. 
Jhe rolling stock compares favorably with that 
in use in any country, and generally, so far as 
railroads are concerned, Kansas challenges com- 
parison with any. The maximum charge to 
passengers on first-class trains is 3 cents per 
mile. 

From Kansas City, Kansas, where the Kan- 
sas River joins the Missouri, at the east line of 
the State, the distances by rail to the various 
ports, east, south and west are about as follows: 

Miles 

To Galveston 799 

To Chicago 458 

To San Francisco . . .2,100 



Miles 

To New York i,394 

To Savannah 1,081 

To New Orleans 878 

To Port Arthur 820 



To Seattle 2 234 



li 



14 




Where a Kansas Farmer Lives. 

Of unappropriated and unreserved public 
land in Kansas belonging to the United States 
Government, there are yet 1,000,000 acres which 
are available to actual occupants either by home- 
steading or pre-emption, for a very small outlay 
of money, extended over a period of years. 
Much of the larger portion of this land is in the 
western counties and more adapted for grazing 
purposes than for grain-farming and home-mak- 
ing. 

The State is watered and drained by several 
important non-navigable streams, such as the 
Kansas, Arkansas, Republican, Solomon, Blue, 
Smoky Hill, Marais des Cygnes, Saline, Medi- 
cine and Cimarron rivers, besides innumerable 
smaller rivers and creeks, which one with an- 
other course through many hundred miles of rich 
valleys, in the east more or less timbered. 
Geclogists who have investigated the subject 
most thoroughly agree that a large portion of 
Kansas has beneath the surface inexhaustible 
supplies of pure cold water at a depth of 10 to 
200 feet, available for irrigation purposes. Every 
investigation affords further evidence of the 
quantity being unlimited, and its inexpensive 
pumping and storage in reservoirs for any use 
are made readily practicable by the modern 
windmill. Artesian waterflow in abundance has 
been developed and is utilized in a portion of 

15 



Meade County, but not elsewhere as yet, worth 
mentioning. 

Wonderful deposits of zinc, lead, coal, natural 
gas and petroleum are constantly being uncov- 
ered in the southeastern counties; quarries of 
superior limestone, sandstone and gypsum for 
building purposes are worked in the more cen- 
tral counties. Extending from north to south, 
and underlying many of these, and being suc- 
cessfully and largely drawn upon, is a salt bed, 
stated by geologists to be not less than 200 
miles from north to south, 60 miles wide and 400 
feet in thickness. 

The following table by Prof. E. Haworth, of 
the University Geological Survey, shows the 
underground products and their values for the 
year 1900 : 
Non-Metallic— Values. 

Coal and Coke $ 5,516,534 

Salt, with cooperage • 1,675,000 

Clay goods 975,500 

Gypsum 267,500 

Stone 593.750 

Natural gas ■ 695,000 

Oil, crude and refined 355,118 

Cement 669,685 

Lime and sand 121,000 

Metallic- 
Zinc ore, $1,235,859, yielding metal- 
lic zinc 2,009,286 

Lead ore, $206,196, yielding metallic 
lead 324,859 

Total $13,203,232 

Fruit, especially apples, peaches, grapes and 
berries of high quality are largely grown in 
Kansas, and some of the largest commercial 
apple orchards in existence are found here, the 
products of which are sought eagerly by distant 
packers and exporters for the domestic and for- 
eign markets. 

Next to her high order of citizenship, it is, 
however, upon agriculture proper and live-stock 
husbandry that Kansas bases her claims to pre- 
eminence and future wealth. What virtue 

16 



there may be in such claims, what the possibili- 
ties of the present are and what the probabilities 
of future promise, are well suggested by the 
official record, setting forth her agricultural 
yieldings in the year 1901, presented in the follow- 
ing table. The valuations given are those at 
home and on the farm instead of in the market 
centers : 



Productions. 



Winter and spring wheat, 

bushels . . 

Corn, bushels 

Oats, bushels 

Rye, bushels 

Barley, bushels 

Buckwheat, bushels ....... 

Irish and sweet potatoes, 

bushels 

Castor-beans, bushels 

Flax, bushels 

Cotton, pounds 

Hemp, pounds 

Tobacco, pounds 

Brooni-cbrn, pounds 

Millet and Hungarian, tons. 
Sorghum for syrup, gallons 
Sorghum for grain and forage 
Tame and Prairie Hay, tons 
Wool, Dairy and Poultry 

Products 

Animals slaughtered and 

sold for slaughter 

Horticultural and garden 

products and wine 

Honey, beeswax and wood . . 



Total value of farm products $195,254,652.95 



Quantities. 



90.333,095 

42,605^672 

20,806,329 

2,955,065 

2,356,700 

3,177 

2,545,722 

6,103 

1,260,192 

57,800 

3,600 

17,600 

13,105,125 

448,784 
1,291,025 

2,556,011 



Values. 



.1:50,610,505.75 
21,731,215.39 

7,375,817.73 

1,408,980.00 

931,783.54 

2,700.45 

2,603,709.50 

7,933-90 

1,701,259.20 

4,046.00 

180.00 

1,760.00 

524,205.00 

2,472,863.00 

451,858.75 

9,785,846.00 

19,061,603.00 

13,804,058.94 

60,902,241.00 

1,650,770.50 
221,315.30 



I,IVE-STOCK— NUMBERS AND VAI^UES. 





Numbers. 


Values. 


Horses and mules 


915,278 
803,952 

2,613,885 
186,987 

2,114,201 


$52,888,646 


Milch cows 

Other cattle 


25,726,464 
6o,li9,3SS 


Sheep 

Swine 


560,961 
13,742,306 


Total value of live-stock .... 




$153,037,732 







Grand Total $348,292,384 

Total increase in values over those of the pre- 
vious year, $17,038,225; total increase in two 
years, $45,387,005. 



17 







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WHEAT. 



/C^-VJ^J" ^ FOREMOST BREADSTUFF 
PRODUCER. 



Facts and Figures as to Yields, Quality, and 

General Standing of Her Famous 

Wheats and Flours. 



To lead in any worthy enterprise or under- 
taking is certainly a distinction of wiiich it is 
pardonable to be proud; to so far excel as to 
early and easily surpass all competitors, old and 
young alike, is an honor vouchsafed to few, 
although persistently sought by many. This, in 
truth, however, aptly describes the status of 
Kansas as a wheat state, having successfully 
distanced all others, and now, almost without a 
close competitor, she is forced to be content with 
exceeding only her own previous feats. 

In her brief career Kansas has made a record 
in some directions unparalleled by any other 
state of agricultural environment and ambition. 
Not alone in wheat production has she achieved 
pre-eminence, but as a commonwealth where a 
diversified agriculture flourishes she is premier, 
annually producing all field crops in generous 
profusion, and rearing and marketing animals of 
well-nigh incalculable value, in which lies the 
state's greatest wealth. 

One of her most conspicuous, although not 
foremost, items is the wheat produced. Without 
doubt the greatest crop of winter wheat, of high- 
est quality, often testing far above the standard 
requirements, ever grown to maturity in any 
state in the world was harvested within the 
borders of Kansas in 1901, amounting to 90,046, 
000 bushels and duplicating with increased yield 
her record for 1900, when she raised more wheat 
by about 2V^ million bushels than the combined 
output of the two ranking next highest, that year, 
in the United States, viz. : Minnesota and Cali- 
fornia. After the prairies were broken, and since 
once fairly started, the state has ranked among 
the very foremost, so early as 1892 leading all 

1'^ 



others by producing nearly 74 million bushels, 
which up to that time was the greatest yield 
ever credited to any state. The year before she 
was second in rank. While among the highest, 
since then her position has fluctuated somewhat 
until 1900, when as a reward by kindly Provi- 
dence of industry and thrift, she again easily as- 
cended to first place, which rank was more fully 
than ever before maintained in 1901. 

The State's 1901 production is 82 per cent, 
greater than the average yearly output in the 
past decade. The 1901 yield is more by 11,915,183 
bushels, or 15.2 per cent- than the United 
States Department of Agriculture has ever re- 
ported raised by any state in any year, barring 
the Kansas yield in 1900, which according to the 
same authority, had for the preceding year the 
distinction of being the bulkiest, but only until 
Kansas had another season, when she of all 
the states surpassed her own record and pro- 
duced a still greater crop. Nearly 13 per cent, of 
the 1901 yield was in Sumner and Barton coun- 
ties ; Sumner with 6,812,102 bushels to her credit. 
Barton with 4,830,009. These two counties in 
1901 produced more wheat than was grown the 
year before. according to the government'sfigures, 
in all New England and the states of New Jersey, 
Delaware, Alabama, Arkansas, Montana and 
South Carolina combined. The four counties of 
Sumner, Barton, Rice and iVlcPherson in 1901 
produced more wheat than the entire states of 
either Illinois or Missouri in the year previous. 

It is difficult for anyone who has not been in 
touch with, or directly observant from year tO' 
year of the progress and expansion of our wheat- 
growing from its small beginnings forty years 
ago, to comprehend how it is that the state has 
gradually come to occupy the foremost rank, and 
how in a quarter of a century what were known 
as soft wheats have in nine-tenths of the fields 
been displaced by the red, flinty sorts, introduced 
from Russia, yet in every-day parlance grouped 
under the general head of " Turkey " wheat. 

Forty years ago the Kansas area sown to 
wheat of all kinds, winter and spring, hard, 

21 



medium and soft, white and otherwise, was less 
than 10,000 acres. For ten years ending with 
1901 the average of winter wheat alone has 
been 4,436,435 acres, and the yield per year, 
counting the good with the bad, was more than 
49,450,000 bushels, the 1901 area being 5,248,547 
acres. The largest area previously sown to win- 
ter wheat was 4,909,972 acres, from which the 
crop of 1893 was harvested. 

Kansas is virtually the only portion of America 
producing the famous hard red wheat in con- 
siderable quantities, in which, as in many other 
things, the state is unique. The seed of this 
wheat was introduced about 25 years ago, being 
brought hither by Mennonite immigrants from 
Southern Russia, near the Black Sea, who, 
apparently, understood much better than Ameri- 
cans its hardy productiveness and real value. 
For years following its introduction it was dis- 
paraged by American millers and grain buyers, 
who claimed that its flinty character made it 
so difficult to grind as to materially lessen its 
market value. The farmers, however, persevered 
in sowing it; the production steadily increased, 
and finally after much experimentation millers 
were successful in economically reducing it to 
flour now famous in the world's most exacting 
markets as superior to nearly all others wherever 
made in America, and conceded equal to those 
made in Hungary from wheats grown in that 
country and in Bohemia. This is true either for 
baking alone or for blending with and giving 
quality to other pretentious makes represented 
as particularly choice because made from extra 
fancy grades of spring wheat grown elsewhere. 

These wheats do not continuously retain their 
peculiar characteristics so well when grown in 
the extreme eastern and south-eastern counties, 
showing a tendency to assume more the qualities 
of soft wheats, and this is true, but to a much 
less extent, wherever they are grown in Kansas. 
This fact resulted in tlie importation direct from 
Russia of a ship's cargo of seed in time for 
distribution among Kansas farmers for the 1901 
sowing. The use of this imported seed, intended 

22 



to be as perfect as money would buy, should do 
much towards lessening the chances of any 
possible deterioration in quality that might other- 
wise result. 

It would be an error, however, to convey the 
impression that no soft winter wheats are grown 
in the state, as in the central and eastern portions 
such varieties as Fulcaster, Fultz, Early May 
and others similar are not uncommon. 

Spring wheat is not a prominent item in Kan- 
sas agriculture and its growth is given little or 
no attention outside a few northern or north- 
western counties bordering Nebraska. 

The following table shows the acres, product 
and value of wheat (winter and spring) in Kan- 
sas, for each of the years given: 

Years. Acres. Bushels. Value. 

1897 3,444,361 51,020,(301 $34,385,304.69 

1898 4.624,731 60,790,661 32,937,012 28 

1899 4,988,952 43,687,013 22,406,410.00 

1900 4.378,5*3 77,;339,091 41,974,145.00 

1901 5,316,482 90,333.095 50,610,505.75 

That Minnesota is a great wheat state all the 
world concedes, and according to the Year Book 
of the United States Department of Agriculture, 
Minnesota had in 1900 a considerably larger 
acreage in wheat than Kansas, but the Year 
Book gives on the same page the Kansas yield 
as greater by more than 60 per cent, and its value 
greater by 40 per cent, and the year 1901 wit- 
nessed the feat repeated with ease and empha- 
sis. 

Not all portions of the State are adapted to the 
best production of wheat, and it is an interesting 
fact that forty-eight of the 105 counties had 90 
per cent, of the wheat acreage in 1901 and con- 
stitute practically the wheat field of Kansas. 
The area sown in the remaining fifty-seven 
counties was less than the acreage sown in the 
two counties of Sumner and Barton. It is like- 
wise of interest to know that practically one- 
half of the wheat product for 1 90 1 was harvest- 
ed in a block of fourteen counties comprising 
the central third of the State, or the coun- 
ties of Sumner, Barton, McPherson, Re- 
no, Rice, Harper, Ellsworth, Saline, Mitchell, 

23 



Pratt, Russell, Sedgwick, Stafford and Ottawa- 
While these counties produced the greater part 
of the igoi crop, many other counties harvested 
a big yield and made a most excellent showing. 
Counties not adapted to wheat-raising by soil 
conditions, climate, or from other causes, may be 
unsurpassed for alfalfa and the sorghums and 
stock-raising, and their smaller areas in wheat 
detract nothing from laurels won in other branches 
of agriculture. 

Kansas hard wheats are sought for shipment to 
mills in other states for mixing with the famous 
soft wheats from the Northwest, thereby greatly 
improving the product in the higher flour grades. 
For years Kansas flouring mills have consigned 
heavy shipments of their products to leading 
markets throughout the United States and to 
foreign countries, where they are received with 
much and increasing favor. 

Millstuffs, such as bran and shorts, find a 
ready market both at home and abroad, and their 
feeding value is evident, for they are in constant 
use on almost every intelligently conducted farm 
and in the feed-lot, where they have come to be 
regarded as necessities. Besides the large quan- 
tities of these valuable by-products made possible 
Dy the wonderful yields of grain, the wheat 
plant's earlier growth annually affords abundant 
succulent pasturage for millions of live-stock 
during much of the fall, winter and spring, 
which in itself is an item of no small consequence; 
and the straw also is of much value. 

A consensus of the detailed statements to 
the State Board of Agriculture of one hundred 
and twenty representative Kansas winter wheat- 
growers, representing fifty-five different coun- 
ties, as to the cost to produce and put in the bin 
or car an acre-crop of wheat, yielding twenty 
bushels, is, itemized, as shown below: 

Average cost of plowing (or disking) $ .96 

Harrowing .28 

Seed and seeding .92 

Cost of harvesting and stacking (or shock- 
ing) 1.36 

Threshing, and putting in bin or car 1.60 

25 



Wear, tear and interest on tools .29 

Rental of land — or interest on its value .-• 1.90 

Total cost per acre, or 20 bushels $7.31 

Averages of other items, gathered from those 
furnishing the 120 most carefully made reports 
quoted, are as follows: 
Average number of years these 120 reporters 

have raised winter wheat in Kansas 19 

Average number of acres raised by them annual- 
ly during these years 527 

Average value of wheat land per acre-.. ...424. 18 
Average quantity of seed sown per acre, 

pecks 4.4 

Average yield per acre, bushels 18.2 

Average value per acre of wheat for pastur- 
age $1.15 

Average value of straw per acre -• . .81 

A digest of the same items of information 
taken from the interviews with eighty growers 
in the thirty counties constituting what is known 
as the "wheat belt", (see map, page 24), which 
produced 79 per cent, of the ninety-million bush- 
el crop harvested in 1901, gives averages thus: 

Average cost of plowing (or disking) $1.00 

Harrowing 28 

Seed and seeding .95 

Cost of harvesting and stacking (or shock- 
ing) 1.48 

Threshing, and putting in bin or car 1.61 

Wear, tear and interest on tools 27 

Rental of land — or interest on its value 2.06 

Total cost per acre, or 20 bushels $7-6$ 

Other averages derived from reports of the 
thirty wheat-belt counties are as follows: 
Average number of years the eighty reporters 

have raised winter wheat in Kansas 21 

Average number of acres raised by them annual- 
ly during each of these years 613 

Average value of wheat land per acre $25.29 

Average quantity of seed sown per acre, 

pecks 4-4 

Average yield per acre, bushels 18 5 

Average value per acre of wheat for pastur- 
age $1.07 

Average value of straw per acre - $ So 

26 



From the total cost per acre, as shown in 
both the foregoing computations, there can 
rightly be deducted the value of the pasturage 
and straw, which amount to a considerable sum, 
and frequently to more than one-third the cost 
of producing the crop. 

Along with other wheat-producing states, Kan- 
sas ranks well. The figures of the United 
States Department of Agriculture are authority 
for the following comparisons, showing the 
achievements of the State along this line during 
the past few years. 

In i8c)5, Kansas was sixth in rank of produc- 
tion, being led by Minnesota, North Dakota, 
California, Ohio and South Dakota, these 
States ranking in the order named. The year 
1896 found Kansas ranking third, with a record 
of 30,794,452 bushels of grain to her credit. 
Minnesota being first with 46,599,061, and Cali- 
fornia second with 45,097,195 bushels. In 1897 
she held second place, with a yield of 47,998,152 
bushels, Minnesota winning first place with a 
product of 59,891,104 bushels. The yield of 
1898 placed Kansas in second rank again, Min- 
nesota getting first honors with a product of 
78,417,912 bushels, while the wheat fields of 
Kansas that year produced 64,939,412 bushels, 
surpassing all her previous wheat crops with the 
single exception of the yield of 1892. In 1899 
Kansas was fifth in rank ; in 1900 first, with the 
largest yield ever reported for any state up to 
that time; in 1901 Kansas retained first rank in 
the galaxy of wheat states, with a yield surpass- 
ing even that of the previous year's crop, and 
the field from which the 1902 product will be ta- 
ken doubtless extends over a larger area than 
has before been known. 



27 




And it Hadn't Stopped Growing Yet. 



CORN. 



Ji/f EXPOSITION OF K-^^SJiS* GREATEST 

CEREAL. 



Source of Much IVealth—Its IVidespread 

Cultivation and Close Relation 

to Prosperity. 

Corn is the king of cultivated plants in Kan- 
sas. Grown in profuse luxuriance, this grain 
proclaims itself the source of wealth and herald 
of opulence. It is at once the farmer's friend 
and handmaiden of the stockman's prosperity. 
Corn proves itself a source of greater wealth and 
profit in Kansas than any other cultivated grain, 
and in years of specially favoring conditions its 
value has often equaled the combined values of 
all other farm crops. Justly famed as many of 
the State's wheat crops have been, statistics 
reveal that in the past quarter of a century the 
aggregate value of the corn crop has been nearly 
double that of the combined crops of winter and 
spring wheat, and further, that in but few years 
of the State's history has the value of the wheat 
crop approached in magnitude or surpassed that 
of the same year's corn. Great as have been 
the yields of corn in former years, the most en- 
thusiastic and insistent believer in Kansas re- 
sources will not maintain that all portions of the 
State are well adapted to its successful produc- 
tion. The corn crops of the past thirty years 
have been grown mainly in the eastern half of 
the State, and no one pretends that the western 
third of the State is especially or reliably corn- 
growing territory. 

The corn crop for the season of 1899 was 
225,183,432 bushels, valued on the farms where 
grown at ^53,530.576, wliile the no mean wheat 
crop for the same year was valued at $22,406,410, 
or considerably less than half as much. As in- 
dicative of what the corn-producer has been 
doing of recent years, figures of yield and value 
for the past decade are given herewith. The 
yield of 1899 was larger than any other annual 
yield in the ten-year period named and the value 
wa*^ likewise greater. 




o 
Co 



a> 

CO 

^5 



The following table, compiled from the official 
records of the Kansas Board of Agriculture, gives 
the annual product and value of corn for the past 
ten years, together with their totals : 
Year. Bushels. Value. 

1892 138,658,621 $ 42,889,849 

1893 118,624,369 32,621,762 

1^94 66,952,833 25,354,190 

1895 201,457,396 46,189,772 

1896 221,419,414 35,633,013 

1897 152,140,993 28,555,293 

1898 126,999,132 30,298,098 

1899 225,183,432 53,530,576 

1900 134,523,^ 77 39,581,835 

1901 42,6 05,672 21,731,215 

Total 1,428,565,539 $356,385,603 

For thirty -four years, of which we have record, 
the average yield for the whole area planted, 
whether in corn territory proper or where none at 
all grew, was twenty-seven bushels per acre. 
The average product per acre on all the plantings 
for ten of those years ranged from forty to forty- 
eight bushels. For a period of tv/enty-five years, 
good and bad, the average farm value of Kansas 
corn per bushel was 27.2 cents, and per acre $7.31. 
Information obtained from numerous extensive 
and long-time corn-growers in all parts of the 
State by the Board of Agriculture, shows, con- 
densed, the following average cost of each prin- 
cipal item entering into the production and har- 
vesting of an acre of corn in Kansas, reckoning 
the cost of harvesting as for a yield of forty 
bushels per acre : 

Seed. $ .077 

Planting (with lister or with check-rower 
planter including cost of previous plow- 
ing and harrowing) .780 

Cultivating 1.020 

Husking and putting in crib 1.160 

Wear and tear and interest on cost of 

tools .230 

Rent of land (or interest on its value) 2.470 

Total cost. $ 5.737 

Cost per bushel. .143 

Average value of corn land per acre 29.570 

31 



The condensed itemized cost showing made by 
the forty-six growers who reported planting with 
listers, or who have found that method prefera- 
ble, is thus: 

Seed $ .075 

Listing .505 

Cultivating 1.090 

Husking and putting in crib 1.140 

Wear and tear and interest on cost of 

tools . .235 

Rent of land (or interest on its value) ••• 2.540 



Total cost $ 5.585 

Cost per bushel .139 

Average value of corn land per acre- 28.710 

Statements of cost where the land is plowed, 
well-harrowed, and planted with the ordinary 
check-row machine, summarize for each item as 
below : 

Seed $ .065 

Plowing 1.030 

Harrowing .225 

Planting .245 

Cultivating .965 

Husking and putting in crib 1.180 

Wear and tear and interest on cost of 

tools .233 

Rent of land (or interest on its value) ••• 2.370 



Total cost $ 6.313 

Cost per bushel, .158 

Average value of corn land per acre--- 29.370 

In none of these calculations has there been 
made any allowance for the value of corn stalks, 
which ordinarily, under the crudest management, 
should offset the cost of harvesting the grain, 
and under proper conditions have a forage value 
much in excess of such cost. Taking these into 
every estimate, as should rightly be done, the 
showing of cost per bushel would be very sen- 
sibly diminished. In the result of this investi- 
gation it will likewise be noted that the rental 
for these Kansas corn lands, or the interest figured 
by their owners on the investment represented, 

32 



averages more than 8.33 per cent, or a net rate 
higher than the capitalist, general broker or 
money lender, other than a pawnbroker, dreams 
of realizing. 

It should be understood, however, that the 
thrifty Kansas farmer does not measure the profit 
of his corn crop by the narrow margin here 
shown between the items of "cost" and "value." 
He does not, as a rule, anticipate selling his corn 
by the bushel at the figures given as "value" 
nor expect more, if he did so, than a moderate 
return, one year with another, for his labor and 
investment; it is the conversion of it on the 
farm into beef, pork, poultry, dairy and similar 
products from which comes the surplus to make 
the comfortable homes and build the school- 
houses, colleges and churches that are such com- 
mon objects on his horizon and so largely a 
measure of his ambition. 

The corn grown in Kansas is of the dent 
varieties and the prime objects aimed at are max- 
imum net corn by weight, minimum cob wei^nt 
and maximum nutrition. These requirements 
demand a seed corn, each planted grain of which 
will germinate and grow, to secure a maximum 
stand. The aim is at least sixty-two pounds net 
(shelled) corn to the bushel, and not to exceeed 
seven to eight pounds of cobs. In fact, such 
corn is now grown to some extent. 

The largest authenticated yield reported for an 
acre was grown by Mr. J. A. Baxter, of Shawnee 
county, who raised 104 bushels to the acre in 
1895. The portion of his crop giving this yield 
was five acres of a twenty-five acre field of 
slightly rolling prairie, not above the average 
Kansas soil, but "with a hard, impervious sub- 
soil." The ground had been planted in potatoes 
for the preceding two years, and the last crop 
dug with a listing plow late in October, which 
was equivalent to a deep fall plowing. Mr. 
Baxter says: "In the spring the ground was 
much like a bed of ashes. It was then deeply 
plowed, for I am a great believer in deep and 
thorough cultivation, made fine and smooth, and 
drilled the first week in May with a ' Farmer's 

33 




51 

o 
o 



o 

CO 



Friend' planter of medium widtli, with a deep- 
grained yellow dent corn, about the same quan- 
tity of seed as would have been used if from 
three to rather less than four grains had been 
placed in hills the ordinary distance apart. This 
was cultivated four times with common gang 
cultivators and hoed three times — the last being 
after Maying by' with the cultivators." For 
ten years at least no manure or other fertilizer 
had been used on this land, but it was reported 
as having been at some previous time heavily 
manured. 

In comparison with other states famous in 
aggregate of corn production, Kansas ranks 
high. The figures of the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture are authority for the 
showing that in 1895 Kansas was fourth, being 
outranked by Iowa, Illinois and Missouri, which 
states yielded in the order named. In 1896 
Kansas was again fourth, Iowa again leading, 
Nebraska second and Illinois third. The year 
1897 finds Kansas back in fifth place, Illinois, 
Nebraska, Iowa and Missouri leading her in the 
order named. Again in 1898 Kansas was fifth, 
Iowa, Illinois, Nebraska and Missouri coming in 
the order mentioned. In 1899 Kansas was third, 
Illinois and Iowa each barely preceding her, and 
in 1900 Kansas again ranked fifth. From these 
statements it will be gathered that the states 
excelling Kansas in total corn-production are her 
immediate neighbors of the prairie district. Dur- 
ing these recent years, Kansas has ranked fifth 
or better. 



35 



\ 



KANSAS' LIVESTOCK- 

CLIMATE JiA[D SOIL FJIVOR THEIR BEST 
DEVELOPMEMT. 



Improved Sorts Prosper — ^ General and 

Profitable Increase in Quality and 

Values from Year to Year. 



There is probably no other territory of like di- 
mensions where live-stock of all kinds grow and 
fatten to greater perfection or where climatic and 
other conditions are more favorable to their 
profitable rearing, or where all the natural advan- 
tages are more conducive to their health than in 
Kansas. The same wholesome, invigorating air 
and genial sunshine with which Kansas is 
blessed, so widely sought by and so beneficial to 
mankind, are likewise of inestimable value and 
importance to animal life and growth. Here are 
the grains and fodders grown in wonderful pro- 
fusion, and with the luxuriant pastures, pure wa- 
ter, mild winters and nearness to market are 
combinations making Kansas pre-eminently a 
live stock region. Statistics substantiate all this, 
and according to figures collected and compiled 
by the State Board of Agriculture, it is shown 
that there has been from her beginning a most 
gratifying advance made in the animal population, 
and owing to the intelligence and enterprise of 
her farmers and stockmen there has likewise 
been remarkable improvement, until today, both 
in numbers and superior breeding of farm ani- 
mals, the State occupies an exalted and enviable 
position. 

Among her sister states, Kansas ranks high 
and favorably in the number of horses, milch 
cows, other cattle, swine, etc., and while in sheep 
some may excel in the mere matter of numbers 
there are none whose flocks of fine-wools are 
more favorably known among breeders, wool- 
buyers and wool-manufacturers for large yields 
and superior quality of product than those reared 
here, famed far and wide for heavy fleeces of fine 
texture and innumerable winnings of prizes over 

37 



world-defying competition. The heaviest auth- 
enticated year's growth of wool, by seven and 
one-half pounds, ever shorn was taken from a 
four-year-old Kansas Merino ram, weighing, 
without artificial weighting, 52 pounds. It also 
seems to be a fact that the heaviest eight fleeces, 
aggregating 301! pounds, ever sheared from a 




Cresceus — Of /(ansas Parentage. 

sheep in eight consecutive years, were produced 
by a Kansas ram, making a yearly average of 
37.7 pounds ; a ewe in this same flock sheared 
an aggregate of 1543 pounds of wool in six 
fleeces, which is believed to be the heaviest yield 
ever obtained from a ewe in six consecutive 



38 



years, in two of which she produced consecu- 
tively the two heaviest fleeces ever taken from 
one of her sex, being 32^ and 31! pounds respect- 
ively. These were all Merinos, but profitable 
flocks of the various mutton breeds are also 
maintained. 

While the United States Department of Ag- 
riculture ranks Kansas as fifth in the number of 
horses, if there was any comparison made in 
excellence, those of the Sunflower State would 
in all probability stand among the first. Some 
of the horses most noted for speed, endurance 
and striking excellence, marvels of the equine 
world and matchless, have been foaled or reared 
beneath the skies of Kansas. The pacing stal- 
lion John R. Gentry, 2:00,^^, was foaled in 
Sedgwick county, Kansas, as was his only rival, 
Joe Patchen, 2:01^4, in Marion county. Smug- 
gler, 2: 1 53^4, one of the greatest trotters of his 
time, was reared and developed here, as well as 
Joe Young, 2:18, the grandsire of Joe Patchen, 
while the present trotting champion, Cresceus, 
is likewise indebted to a Kansas parentage, his 
sire, Robert McGregor, 2:173^', having his home 
in the Sunflower State for many years. All 
these represent types of the harness or road- 
ster class. Perhaps, however, wider attention is 
given to the breeding of the types especially 
adapted to draft and similar purposes, and in the 
past few years renewed and added interest in 
this particular industry has been apparent. 
March i, 1901, there were 825,553 horses in the 
State, valued at $47,056,521 ; also of mules and 
asses, 89,725 head, worth $5,832,125. 

The State's greatest animal wealth lies in 
her herds of cattle and swine, which year after 
year steadily bring to their producers a profitable 
recompense for intelligent industry. The latest 
official statistics show the number of stock cattle 
now to be the largest in the history of the State, 
making within the last five years the phenomenal 
increase of over 100 per cent, while the number 
of all cattle reaches well up toward three and 
one-half million, mostly grades of the best 
breeds, and valued at $85,845,819, and the 

39 



2,114,201 hogs on hand March i, 1901, were 
valued on the farms at $13,742,306. 

The following table shows the aggregate value 
of the live-stock in Kansas for each of the last 
five years : 

1897 $ 94,074,885 

1898 113,227,933 

'899 133,057,092 

1900 143,457,753 

1901 153,037,732 

Total ■•$636,855,395 

By nature Kansas is made a superb fattening 
ground for live-stock of all kinds. With her 
numerous varieties of grains and grasses, some 
one or more of them being especially adapted to 
and prospering in the variant conditions of the 
different localities, the State is each year prac- 
tically assured of a well-nigh unlimited supply of 
the very best meat-producing foods, which are 
largely and profitably marketed via the live-stock 
route. Animals slaughtered for meat or sold for 
that purpose alone represented nearly sixty-one 
million dollars in the year ending March i, 1901, 
and annually for the past ten years Kansas has 
given to the shambles animals having an average 
home value of more than forty-five million dollars, 
or an aggregate of considerably over $450,000,000 
In this connection, it is entirely just and proper to 
correct an erroneous impression that has some- 
how become widespread, and that is that the 
great stock yards and gigantic slaughter and 
packing-houses of Kansas City, with one excep- 
tion the most extensive in the world, located in, 
maintained and made possible by the State of 
Kansas, are not now and never were in Missouri, 
as many are led to believe, but in Kansas City, 
Kansas, the State's metropolis. As a matter of 
fact, the latest available statistics show that in a 
chosen year Kansas furnished six times as many 
as its closest competitor, and often more and very 
seldom ever less than 50 per cent of the entire 
number of cattle received at the Kansas City 
stockyards each year, not to speak of sheep and 

40 



swine. The helpful hen has also been unfailing 
in her substantial contributions to the State's 
wealth, and the amounts received each twelve 
months from the surplus of poultry and eggs 
have increased, until in 1901 it reached $5,950,076, 
or a sum that would considerably more than have 
paid the total expense of the excellent school 
system for the same time. 

The figures in the table below, showing for the 
last five years the total value of the products of 
Kansas live-stock, to-wit : Animals slaughtered 
or sold for slaughter, wool clip, butter and cheese 
manufactured, and poultry, eggs and milk sold, 
disclose a marvelous record : 

1897 $ 46,983,923 

1898 59,417,008 

1899 61,525,551 

1900 67,014,901 

1901 74,706,299 

Total $ 309,647,682 

The 1901 gain over the value in 1897 is 
$27,722,376, or nearly 60 per cent. 

The value of live-stock on hand March i, 1901, 
was $153,037,732; the value of live-stock prod- 
ucts for the year, $74,706,299. 

These figures well suggest the significance of 
live-stock and meat production as factors in 
Kansas agriculture and Kansas prosperity. 



41 



B JURYING IN K-^MSAS. 

COW-CULTURE Ji HIGHLY PROFITABLE 
VOCJiTION. 



Enriches Man and Soil — Butter and Cheese 

Factories Produce Commodities of 

Superior Quality. 

Kansas farmers are learning year by year that 
their business, if profitable, must be so conducted 
that it is not the mere playing of a game of 
chance with the weather or a single crop. Those 
who most fully recognize these conditions and 
most intelligently respond to their inexorable 
requirements are realizing a fair or large pros- 
perity. More attention, therefore, is being given 
to a diversity along agricultural lines and quite 
naturally many have taken to cow culture. Kan- 
sas is admirably suited to the profitable pursuit 
of dairying. On her productive soils can be 
raised unlimited supplies of the best flesh and 
milk-producing foods at incomparably low cost; 
her meadows and pastures furnish nutritious 
and succulent grasses in abundance and wide 
variety, and the winters are short and mild, 
thereby making long-time sheltering and expen- 
sive indoor feeding and care less a necessity. 
The corn, Kaffir corn and other sorghums, alfalfa, 
clover and grasses produced here in great pro- 
fusion, and, with the brans from our wheat, are 
in large measure the ideal cheap raw material 
for manufacturing on the farm, by means of the 
cow, commodities that afford a ready money 
income every month. 



Years 



Comparative Values. 



1897 

1898 

1899 

1900 

1901 

This diagram shows the vahies of Kansas dairy pro- 
ducts annually and their increase for each of five years, 
ending in 1901. 



$5,259,752. 




$6,049,552. 


Increase, 15.01 per cent. 




$0,528,308. 


Increase, 7.91 per cent. 


$7,459,693. 


Increase, 14.26 per cent. 


$7,729 7S4. 


Increase, 3.62 per cent. 



Dairying, largely and methodically conducted, 
IS comparatively a new feature in the agriculture 
of Kansas. Prior to rSgo the systematic produc- 
tion and marketing of butter and cheese was 
given at best only desultory attention, and those 
identified or somewhat familiar with this industry 
then did not, as a rule, esteem the returns there- 
from of sufficient volume or importance to warrant 
the outlay of any considerable sum of money for 
improvement and extension along that line. 

The institution of skimming stations, cream- 
eries and cheese factories, begun some ten years 
since, has from the first pointed out that the use 
of the better cattle was well-nigh imperative to 
make the business profitable and at the same 
time secure a product of superior quality. Through 
persistent endeavor to have dairy herds of high 
grades, if not pure bloods, the farmers and dairy- 
men have been continually eliminating the more 
unprofitable animals, and statistics for a period 
of five years, ending with 1896, show that the 
number of milch cows in the State decreased 
more or less in each of those years while this 
vigorous campaign of improvement was being 
waged, but the figures also show that the value 
of their product, instead of correspondingly de- 
creasing, has actually increased in three of the 
five years, thus making apparent that improve- 
ment in the milch cows has been a most potent 
factor in advancing the dairy interests of Kansas, 
and to-day many have excellent high-yielding 
herds, supporting the largest creamery in the 
world, at Topeka, as well as the numerous 
smaller institutions of like character scattered 
here and there over the State. 

Since the good foundation has been established, 
there have been steady growth and advance- 
ment. In 1897 the number of milch cows was 
552,530, or an increase of more than 7 per cent, 
over the previous year ; in 1898 a gain of over 9.5 
per cent, was made; the increase in 1899 was 
almost 1 3 per cent ; in 1900 there were 28,400 more 
than in the previous year, and the increase in 
1901 was nearly 13 percent, making a total for the 
State of 803,952, the largest in its history, a gain 

44 



in numbers since 1896 of about 289,000, or 56 per 
cent, and their value is ^25,726,464, or an in- 
crease during the same time of over 95 percent. 

The United States Department of Agriculture 
places Kansas seventh in rank in number of 
milch cows, and since once fairly awakened to 
the importance and possibilities of dairying there 
is every reason to believe that her progress will 
be continuous and permanent. The 1901 aggre- 
gate value of butter and cheese made and milk 
sold for other purposes was $7,729,784, the 
largest in the history of the State, being 3.6- 
per cent, more than in the preceding year, and 
$2,470,032 or 47 per cent, more than in 1897. 
While the unthinking might regard the products 
of the cow as of minor importance, it is interest- 
ing to know that their total 1900 value was 22O' 
per cent, greater than the output of the rich 
Kansas zinc and lead mines during the same 
period, and that it probably would have paid the 
total State, county, city and township taxes for 
the year. If the values of the large quantities of 
butter and milk consumed in the homes on the 
farms were added, the grand total would be 
considerably increased, but unfortunately, there 
is no official account taken of that. 

During the past ten years the manufacture of 
cheese has increased over 137 per cent, the total 
output for 1901 being 1,456,093 pounds, valued 
at $145,609. 

The table given below shows the quantity of 
butter made in Kansas and its value in each of 
the ten years named, compiled from the official 
records of the State Board of Agriculture : 

Pounds. Value. 

I90I 43,771,076 $ 6,880,143.44 

1900 41,745,759 6,641,692.06 

1899 43,757,767 5,890,273.07 

1898 41,450,981 5,320,144.8^ 

1897 37,213,928 4,585, 271. I& 

1896 35,007,334 4,225,896.44 

1895 31,154,220 4,050,048.60 

1894 27,412,211 4,385,953.76 

1893 27,347,613 4,375,618.08 

1892 27,705,466 4,155,819.90 

Total 356,566,355 $50,510,861.39 



These figures vividly and forcibly portray 
the magnitude and steady growth of the butter- 
mal<ing industry in Kansas, showing that since 
1S92 its manufacture has increased 58 per cent, 
and that its value, along with that of cheese 
made and milk sold for other purposes, for the 
years mentioned aggregates nearly $57,000,000. 
an irrefutable testimonial to the adaptability of 
the Sunflower State, the profitable culture of 
the cow, telling tersely that Kansas, while yet 
comparatively in her infancy, is a most aggres- 
sive competitor for the premier place in the list 
of successful dairy States. 

Scores and scores of creameries at first estab- 
lished as questionable experiments are now per- 
manent, profitable institutions, and produce 
butter and cheese in increasing quantities and of 
export quality. Admirable natural roads, pass- 
able everywhere throughout the year, enable the 
producer to bring his supplies to the stations or 
factories regularly. The use of new and im- 
proved machinery and the presence of rival com- 
panies with large capital insure eager acceptance 
of the milk and a profitable cash remuneration 
each month of the year to the producer, whether 
marketing the product of one cow or of one 
thousand. The markets of the whole country 
are available the year through, modern trans- 
portation and refrigerating facilities insuring the 
prompt delivery of goods in perfect condition 
for the dealer or the table. To such an extent 
is this true that within the past two years many 
carloads of Kansas butter have found remuner- 
ativ^e demand in transatlantic markets. 

At the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, 
Kansas butter made a most gratifying record in 
competition with that from the older dairy 
states most famed for the excellence of their 
dairy goods. The June score of Kansas butter 
was 94.54, leading Indiana, New York and 
Connecticut. The July score was 91.59, lead- 
ing Minnesota, Indiana, Pennsylvania and New 
York. The score for September was 91.96, a 
better showing for the month than made by 
either Illinois, Indiana or New York. The 

46 



October exhibit indicated an average score of 
93.07, outranking Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, New 
York, Vermont and Canada. Kansas reached 
the 99 mark on one exhibit in June, and the 
lowest score was 78, in July; one state scored 
as low as 60 on butter in July. The average 
score of all the states combined was 92.9; the 
general average of the 104 Kansas exhibits was 
94.025. At the meeting of the National Butter 
Maker's Union, at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a few 
year's since, one lot of Kansas butter scored 
96.33, and the lowest score on the Kansas ex- 
hibit was 90.8. The average score was one 
point above Wisconsin, a fraction above Illinois, 
and a little over a point above the Iowa average, 
and less than a point below Minnesota, that 
took first prize. Kansas butter at the Iowa 
meeting came in competition with that from 
New Hampshire, South Dakota, Indiana, Ohio, 
Washington, Mississippi, Illinois, Iowa and 
Wisconsin, but was excelled by Minnesota only, 
whose score was 97.82. Kansas creamery butter 
stands well at the head of the most exacting 
markets and brings top prices. 

The many well-to-do communities in this and 
other lands where dairying is a leading industry, 
indisputably prove that, wisely conducted, it has 
yielded a higher prosperity than general farming. 
It not only gives better and more frequent re- 
turns in cash, but it enables the farmer to main- 
tain and even increase the fertility of his land. 

It would seem that Kansas offers advantages 
equal, if not superior, to those of any state or 
province anywhere for the profitable pursuit of 
dairying. 



47 



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LEGUME ^ND SORGHUM. 

J^LFJkLFJi ^ VOVVLJiK FORAGE JtW 
rtRY-WEJlTHER PLJINT. 

«^ in Acrease-Kaffir Corn Valuable 
Increasing in .ftcrtms^ '\. >> 

Both as a Forage and Grain Crop. 

Two plants wonderful for their already proven 

sh?ip'y as benefactions to the stockgrower but 
wel niEh indispensable. These are alfalfa 
7Medica|o sativa? and sorghum, the chief variety 
of which for forage and gram is Kaftir corn, one 
nf the manv non-saccharine sorghums. 
The fir "t official notice of alfalfa was taken by 

the enum-erators in ,89. , wh-^" *%,^^t'i"^l*e 
total area at 34,384 acres, and each year since 
has shown a marked extension. In i»92 tliere 
was shown an increase in the acreage of 82 ^er 
cent • in 1803 and 1894 a gain of 20 per cent, was 
made fSr each year, and in 1895 't J^s ™o^e than 
doubled; in 1896 ^nd ib97 the ncrease was 11 

rn"X«^ir^"iir*;f i'Va^'if " neS 
ove? thT^revbu's year, reaching a total of 278 477 
arres In iQoo the acreage was not increasea, 
buUhe following year witnessed a gam of o^^^^ 
15 per cent, making the State's total aiea 319,142 

^'^The diversified weather in 1901 served admir- 
ably to eZhasize the deshability of grounng 
alfalfa in the middle wcst, and also testified 
forcibly to its adaptability. The wonderf u per- 

ormances that year of this widely exploited 

nWnt have attracted attention anew to its worth, 

ft hav ng yidded two, three, four and sometimes 

ve cuttings, and the .stockman PO/sessed «f 

even a small acreage is in an ^nv able situation. 

The intelligent Kansas farmers, whose btate tar 



4ft 



and away leads all others in alfalfa production, 
are constantly bettering their conditions and 
chances for success by devoting larger areas to 
its culture, as is conspicuously indicated in offi- 
cial statistics compiled by the State Board of 
Agriculture. For instance, in 1891 the total 
returned was 34,384 acres; in 1901 its field 
extends over 319,000 acres, showing a phenom- 
inal increase in the ten years of over 828 per 
cent. Even when first considered of sufficient 
importance to be officially recognized as belong- 
ing to Kansas' repertoire of crops, a canvass of 
the returns for that year (1891) shows that with 
the three exceptions of Atchison, Johnson and 
Miami, each county devoted more or less land to 
its growth, Finney county leading with 5,717 
acres; while the counties ranging between that 
number and 1,000 acres were Kearny, Chase, 
Cloud, Gray, Lyon, Saline, Sedgwick and 
Wabaunsee, and of those claiming an acreage at 
all, Linn was among the smallest, having two 
acres. Now, while not the foremost, Finney has 
12,545, and Linn 261, and the three counties 
mentioned as having none in 1891, have a total 
of 621 acres. 




A Field of Alfalfa. 



50 



The following table shows, according to their 
rank, the twenty-six present leading Kansas 
counties in alfalfa acreage, with their acreage 
for igoi and also for 1891 : 



1901 

Counties. Acres. 

Jewell 21,994- 

Butler 15,669- 

Norton 14,401- 

Finney 12,545. 



1 891 

Acres. 

• 296 
. 503 

• 442 
•5,717 



Chase ■ 10,390 1,401 



Republic 10,389- 

Mitchell 9,650. 

Phillips •...•■ 9,131 

Wabaunsee 8,978- 

Lyon 8,871- 

Sedgwick 8,399- 

Osborne 8,371. 

Greenwood 8,253- 

Smith 7,568- 

McPherson 7,107- 

Marion 7,024. 

Saline 6,906.. 

Cloud 6,876. 

Kearny 6,120.. 

Decatur 6,oii. 



496 

. 880 

. Ill 

1,031 

• 1,098 
.1,023 

• 379 
. 421 

• 53 

. 980 

- 851 

.1,099 
■ 2,018 

.2,188 

. 160 



Pottawatomie 5,761 334 



Cowley 5,706 

Riley 5,625- 

Reno 5,481. 

Ottawa 5,398- 

Rice 5,362. 



416 
136 

654 
756 

635 



Totals 227,995 24,078 

This table is strikingly suggestive of the 
rapidity and extent to which worth alone has 
brought recognition to a very wonderful field crop. 
As will be noted, the total acreage of the 
twenty-six counties in 1891 does not greatly 
exceed that of the one county of Jewell in 1901, 
and the combined acreage of the two counties 
of Jewell and Butler in 1901 is greater by over 
3,oGO acres than the State's entire alfalfa area in 
1891. It is difficult to adequately comprehend 
the magnitude of the increase, and however 

51 




Five Cuttings of Alfalfa. 

^ggf'^gcite Height, Over Fourteen Feet; 

Produced 7% Tons to Acre. 

(NOT IRRIGATED.) 



prodigious it may appear so expressed, it is a 
fact that Smith county gained over 14,179 per 
cent, in acreage in the ten years, Phillips over 
8,126 per cent, etc., in a lesser degree to the 
end — those mentioned being given as striking ex- 
amples. 

The 1901 figures proclaim an increase for the 
State of 43,134 acres, or more than 15 per cent 
over the previous year. Among these counties 
leading in alfalfa and showing greatest per cent 
of gain for the year are: Jewell, 21,994 acres, 
gain 24 percent; Butler, 15,669 acres, gain 21 
per cent; Norton, 14,401 acres, gain 25 per cent. ; 
Finney, 12,545 acres, gain 9 per cent; Chase, 
10,390 sicres, gain 8 per cent.; Republic, 10,389 
acres, gain 27 per cent; Mitchell, 9,659 acres, 
gain 14 per cent ; Wabaunsee, 8,978 acres, gain 
22 per cent.; Osborne, 8,371 acres, gain 29 per 
cent., and Greenwood 8,253 acres with a gain of 
9 per cent 

All portions of the State display a remarkable 
and increasing interest in alfalfa-growing, as is 
demonstrated by the large gain. Some counties 
presenting notable examples of the continued 
activity in sowing alfalfa, are Hodgeman, with 
an increase over the previous year of 243 per 
cent.; Harper, 210 per cent; Neosho, 84 per 
cent. ; Miami, 80 per cent. ; Barber, 67 per cent 
Clark, 50 per cent; Marshall, 44 per cent 
Decatur, 42 per cent ; Meade, 42 per cent 
Ellsworth, 40 per cent. ; Smith, 39 per cent. , 
Graham, 32 per cent, and Sumner, 31 per cent 

Alfalfa seems to flourish in well-nigh all sec- 
tions of the State, and after once gaining a fiim 
root-hold can be safely relied upon to produce 
from two to five cuttings each year, whether the 
season be wet or dry. 



53 



YEARS. 



1891 

1892 

1893 

1894 

1895 

1896 

1897 

1898 

1899 

1900 

1901 



COMPARATIVE ACREAGES. 



34,aS4 acres. 



62,583, acres. Increase 82 per cent. 



72,500 acres. Increase 15.84 per cent. 



90,825 acres. Increase 20.77 per cent. 



139,878 acres. Increase 54 per cent. 



155,949 acres. Increase 11.50 per cent. 



171,334 acres. Increase 9.86 per cent. 



231,548 acres. Increase 35.14 per cent. 



278,477 acres. Increase 20.26 per cent. 



276,008 acres. Decrease .88 per cent. 



319,142 acres. Increase 15.62 per cent. 



Diagram showing the comparative acreages of 
alfalfa in Kansas annually for eleven years, beginning 
with 1891 (when the crop was first returned by asses- 
sors) and ending with 1901. 

This perennial legume, with its long, penetrat- 
ing roots reaching to great depths, has there- 
by unusual powers of resistance to protracted 
dry weather, and while the ideal conditions of 
soil are most commonly found in the valleys of 
streams, experienced observers are generally 
agreed that it can be grown profitably on the 
higher lands to a greater or less extent in every 
county of the State. Scientists and unlearned 
farmers are alike in crediting alfalfa with nutri- 
tive qualities of a very high degree, and unsur- 
passed excellence for use with other foods in 

54 



making a suitably balanced ration, either for 
fattening animals or those maintained for the 
production of milk 

Possessing many, if not all the good qualities 
of the much-prized red clover, besides others, 
some of which are its growing luxuriantly in a 
wide territory where clover can not be grown at 
all, and yielding from two to three times as much 
of feed equally nutritious, along with being a 
remarkable soil renovator, it is esteemed as in- 
deed a rich acquisition to a region where it flour- 
ishes so abundantly. In spite of the fact that 
clover is so reliably and profitably grown in the 
eastern counties, alfalfa, regarded by many as 
only adapted to a semi-arid region, has by sheer 
merit forced its way into these counties until one- 
sixth of the State's entire alfalfa field is now 
found in the clover-growing counties. In fact, 
52 per cent, of the alfalfa acreage at the present 
time is in the eastern half of the State, although 
in the western coun^"ies the acreage in proportion 
to population is greater than in the eastern coun- 
ties, all of which indicates the high appreciation 
shown the crop in all directions. 

Its largest annual yields, of from four to six and 
more tons per arre, are obtained in the rich bottom 
lands of the Arkansas Valley, where abundant 
moisture is found not many feet from the surface, 
and where three, four and sometimes as many as 
five cuttings are made in a single season; the 
same applies also to lands favorably situated for 
irrigation. Those who have raised and used 
alfalfa longest and most esteem it with increas- 
ing favor, and it seems likely to be more and 
more extensively produced as the years go by. 
As a soil renovator it has been described in the 
following language : 

"There are some silent subsoilers that do their 
work with ease and, in their way, as effectually 
as any team or plow ever hitched, although in 
some lands the use of a subsoil plow is essential 
to the best beginning of such work. The clover 
plant is righteously famed as one of these, and 
alfalfa is its superior. Its roots work Sunday 
as well as Saturday, night and day ; they strike 

65 



five, ten, fifteen or twenty feet deep, making 
innumerable perforations, while storing up nitro- 
gen, and when these roots decay they leave 
not only a generous supply of fertility for any 
desired crop, but millions of openings into which 
the airs and rains of heaven find their way, upon 
which the husbandman can draw with little fear 
of protest or overdrafts." 

While alfalfa is noted for its deep-rooting pro- 
pensities, as described above, it is making a still 
more remarkable recora in its upward growth, as 
suggested by the illustration, one among many 
somewhat similar, furnished by the 1901 crop of 
a single grower in Montgomery county, Kansas, 
who secured five cuttings off one field which, 
combined, measured 14 feet 2 inches in height and 
yielded 7^ tons per acre, netting $77.50 per acre, 
and legion are the reports of wonderful profits 
derived from growing alfalfa in the Sunflower 
State. 

The general cultivation and use of the various 
sorghums as forage plants, and some of them 
for grain as well, are becoming more and more a 
factor in the State's live-stock husbandry ; as 
such they are noticeable on every hand, and in 
no other part of the United States of similar area 
are they nearly so extensively grown, favorably 
known and highly appreciated. On the lime- 
stone lands of the eastern counties or the higher, 
sandier plateaus and valleys further west, and 
on soils of high or low fertility, they yield crops 
having most acceptable values. Yet they do not 
bear relegation to fields too foul for other crops, 
and for the best results should receive as careful 
attention as would be required for success with 
Indian corn. The combined acreage of all vari- 
eties of the sorghums raised in the State in 1901 
was 1,169,253 acres, an area equal to the aggre- 
gate of that devoted to all tame grasses, and 
ranking third in this respect among the standard 
crops of the State. 

This acreage is about equally divided between 
eastern and western Kansas, with 55 per cent, 
of the non-saccharine in the eastern half, and 60 
per cent, of the saccharine in the western half. 

6»i 



As forage plants, the sweet sorghums rank 
equally with the non-saccharine, such as the 
Kaffir corn, Jerusalem corn and milo maize, par- 
ticularly in western Kansas, where higher altitude 
and a dryer atmosphere are especially favorable 
for their curing and preservation. 



Years. 



1893 
1894 
1895 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 
1901 



Comparative Acreages. 



46,911 acres. 
95,237 acres. 



184, 198 acres. 



Increase, 103 per cent. 
Increase, 93,42 per cent. 



373.058 acres. 


Increase, 102.53 per cent 


371,838 acres. 


Decrease, .32 per cent 


535,743 acres. 


Increase, 44. OS per cent 


582,895 acres. 


Increase, 9 per cent 



645,186 acres. Increase, 4.25 per cent. 



618,816 acres. Decrease, 4.26 per cent. 



This diagram shows the comparative acreages of Kaffir 
born in Kansas annualh* for nine years, beginning with 
1893, (when the crop was first returned bj' assessors) and 
ending with 1901. 

Far and away the foremost of these non- 
jaccharine sorghums is Kaffir corn, and some- 
thing of a comparison of its popularity with 
)ther sorghums is indicated by figures begin- 
ling with those of 1893, when it was first con- 
feidered of sufficient importance to be given 
[cognizance by the State Board of Agriculture 
ind its statistics gathered by township asses- 
sors. In that year the area planted was 46,911 
icres, and of saccharine sorghums 132,205 
icres, or 85,294 acres more than Kaffir corn. 



57 



Their progress as competitors for popularity 
since then is indicated by the following: 

1894 -Sorghum, increase, 31 per cent. 

1894— Kaffir corn, increase 103 per cent. 

1895 —Sorghum, increase, 63 per cent. 

1895— Kaffir corn, increase, 93 per cent. 

1896— Sorghum, increase, 27 per cent. 

1896 — Kaffir corn, increase, 102 per cent 

1897— Sorghum, decrease, 2 per cent. 

1897 — Kaffir corn, decrease, .3 per cent. 

1898 — Sorghum, increase, 10 per cent. 

1898— Kaffir corn, increase, 44 per cent. 

1S99— Sorghum, increase, 16 per cent. 

1899— Kaffir corn, increase, 9 per cent- 

1900 — Sorghum, increase, 21 per cent. 

1900— Kaffir corn, increase, 11 per cent. 

190 1 — Sorghum, decrease, .14 per cent. 

1901 — Kaffir corn, decrease, 4.08 per cent. 

In 1901 the sorghum area amounted to 541,821 
acres and of Kaffir corn 618,816 acres, showing 
that in the past eight years the latter had not 
only overtaken the former, but distanced it by 
76,995 acres, or 14 per cent. During the same 
period sorghum gained 309 per cent, or 409616 
acres, and the increase in Kaffir corn was 1,219 
per cent, or 571,905 acres. 

While the figures disclose the large difference 
between the annual plantings of these two 
varieties of sorghums, they by no means depre- 
ciate the value of the saccharine or disturb it 
in the ranks of the best known forage plants in 
the world, but are intended to show the mar- 
velous strides being made by a recent competi- 
tor claiming not only a foliage of first-class 
forage quality, but a fattening value in its grain 
almost if not quite equal to Indian corn ; virtues 
which practical farmers and scientists affirm, 
while declaring it successfully and profitably 
grown on land high or low, rich or poor, and 
whether the season be wet or dry. 

Farmers who have become acquainted with 
Kaffir corn are planting a larger per cent, of 
their poorer land to it yearly and confining their 
Indian corn to the best parts of their farms, 
where even then the Kaffir corn in some seasons 

58 



far exceeds the corn in quantity of both grain 
and fodder. With the two varieties of sorghum 
on equal footing in their utilization asjforage 
and grain on the farm, the average value of the 
yield per acre for the past nine years (1893-1901), 
according to the growers of sorghum, was $5.50, 
and of Kaffir corn $9.57, showing the value of 
Kaffir corn to be for their purposes $4.32 per 
acre, or 82 per cent greater than sorghum. Fur- 
ther investigation shows for the same period an 
average grain value for Indian corn of $4.70 per 
acre after it is husked. The values are given 
for the sorghum with stover and grain included. 
In assuming the difference between the sor- 
ghum and Kaffir corn to be the grain value of the 
latter exclusive of stover, the grain value of Kaffir 
corn is placed at $4. 32 per acre, or within 38 cents 
per acre of the value of husked Indian corn. 

This statement, coupled with the preceding, 
forcibly suggests for Kaffir corn an early depart- 
ure in rank from among the exclusive forage 
plants to a standing among the highest grade of 
flesh and fat and milk-producing foods. In 
nearly all the counties showing the heaviest 
values of cattle, the larger areas of Kaffir corn 
strongly supplemented by alfalfa prevail, and 

i the same as to values of animals slaughtered or 

■ sold for slaughter and output of the dairy products. 
Like alfalfa, after securing a strong hold in 

I the eastern counties, Kaffir corn is steadily 
advancing westward, and is fortunate in discov- 
ery of conditions generally conducive to its cul- 
ture and usefulness. 

By the fact that Kaffir corn can be success- 

t fully grown in all localities, and of its being a 
strong resistant to protracted heat and dryness, 
proved feeding qualities, close or practically 
equal to corn, having an abundance of the car- 
bohydrates or fat-producing elements, it promises 
to become as much a principal resource in cen- 
tral and western Kansas as Indian corn is in the 
East, and when balanced with the deep-rooted 
alfalfa, richer in protein or frame and flesh build- 
ing materials than almost any other available 

'adjunct, it opens vast possibilities to those who 
would grasp opportunity. 



K-ANSAS ALSO GROWS 
SUGAR-BEETS. 



No part of Kansas ever tried to raise beets for 
sugar-making purposes prior to 1901 when, 
owing to the proximity of a factory at Rocky 
Ford, Colo., one hundred or more farmers, all 
new to the business, in Finney, Kearny and 
Hamilton, three western Kansas counties, repre- 
senting a strip of country seventy-five miles 
long, undertook the raising of a few acres of 
beets each, under a contract with the factory, at 
$4 per ton for all beets with at least 12 per cent, 
of sugar, and an increased price in proportion as 
the beets were sweeter. Some neglected their 
crops and did not attempt to deliver them to the 
factory, but seventy-seven growers harvested 
1,747 tons from 337 acres, or 22g tons each, rang- 
ing in sugar content, according to the factory's 
weighing and paying, from 13.3 to 22.8 per cent , 
and averaging, the good with the bad, 17.8 per 
cent while the average in Germany, the great 
beet-sugar country of the world, is reported as 
about 15 per cent., and in all Europe but 13 j to 
14 per cent. Some of these beets were so 
rich that the factory was glad to pay as high 
as ?^7-5o per ton for them, and paid an average 
for all Kansas beets of $5.14 per ton; a result 
both gratifying and significant, especially when 
the growers' inexperience, and insufficient and 
unsuitable equipment are taken into considera- 
tion with the records for quantity and quality. 

The average profit per acre realized by thirty- 
seven growers from whom accurate figures were 
obtained was $17-08, and ranged, in some in- 
stances, as high as $43 per acre. Fifteen of the 
more successful or painstaking growers raised 
an average of not quite eleven tons per acre (the 
maximum per acre was eighteen and forty-one 
hundreths tons), yielding an average of 17.59 
per cent, of sugar, and $28.48 profit per acre. 
All this was exclusive of the $i-per-ton bounty 
paid by the State. 

60 



The Truth Jtbout IQansas, 

JiS SHOWN BY UMCLE SJIM, JiNT> 
JiMJiLYZET> BY 



F. D. COBURAf, Secretary I^ansas State 
Board of Agriculture, 



Following are some figures taken from the 
official reports of the United States Department 
of Agriculture, presenting in a concise manner, 
unbiased, unprejudiced and impartial information 
concerning Kansas and her standing as a fore- 
most producer of the world's greatest cereals : 

^ Good Cereal Story. 

Here is a table compiled from the Year Books 
of the United States Department of Agriculture, 
giving by states, according to their rank, the 
total combined value of Wheat and Corn raised 
in each of the leading fifteen states, in the five- 
year period beginning with 1896 and ending with 
1900 : 



STATE. 



KANSAS . ... 

Illinois 

Iowa 

Nebraska 

Missouri 

Indiana 

Ohio 

Minnesota 

Texas 

Pennsylvania 

Tennessee 

Kentucky — 

Michigan 

South Dakota 
California 



Rank. 


Value of 




Wheat and Corn. 


1 


$378,433,347 


2 


361,630,618 


3 


330,791,771 


4 


301,419,923 


5 


275,961,983 


6 


258,562.008 


7 


252,763,713 


8 


226,883,967 


9 


182,489,833 


10 


168,518,387 


11 


155,085,808 


12 


153,204,900 


13 


123,979,189 


14 


117,789,270 


15 


115,315.266 



61 



The Straw Afot Counted.^ 

Below is Uncle Sam's valuation of the Wheat crop of 
the year 1900 in each of the leading fifteen states, placed 
in proper rank: 



STATE. 



KANSAS 

Minnesota 

California 

Texas 

Pennsylvania • 

Nebraska 

Iowa 

Washington •■ 

Missouri - 

South Dakota 

Illinois 

Maryland 

Oklahoma 

Tennessee 

Oregon 



Rank. 


Value of 




Year's Wheat. 


1 


$45,368,760 


2 


32,450,829 


3 


16,555,302 


4 


14,973.384 


5 


14,602.560 


6 


13.145,007 


^ 

/ 


12,860,952 


8 


12,799,297 


9 


11,873,429 


10 


11,686,817 


11 


11.508.524 


12 


10,783.372 


13 


9,888,408 


14 


9,239,910 


15 


8,908,907 



IQansas' Pretty liank. 

lyist of states according to their rank in value of 
wheat, wheat and corn, and corn alone, produced by the 
leading fifteen in the j-ear 1900. 

Thus saith the Year Book : 







Wheat and 




Rank. 


Wheat State. 


Corn State. 


Corn State. 


1 


KANSAS. 


KANSAS. 


Illinois. 


'2 


Minnesota. 


Illinois. 


Iowa. 


3 


California. 


Iowa. 


Nebraska. 


4 


Texas. 


Nebraska. 


Missouri. 


5 


Pennsylvania. 


Missouri. 


KANSAS. 


6 


Nebraska. 


Indiana. 


Indiana. 


7 


Iowa 


Texas. 


Texas. 


8 


Washington. 


Ohio. 


Ohio. 


9 


Missouri. 


Minnesota. 


Tennessee. 


10 


S. Dakota. 


Tennessee. 


Kentucky. 


11 


Illinois. 


Kentuckv. 


Georgia. 


12 


Maryland. 


Pennsylvania 


Arkansas. 


13 


Oklahoma. 


Wisconsin. 


Alabama. 


14 


Tennessee. 


Georgia. 


N. Carolina. 


15 


Oregon. 


N. Carolina. 


Wisconsin. 



62 



Others liaise Corn, Too. 

This is what the Government's Agricultural "Blue" 
Book suggests about the rank in value of corn produced 
by the leading fifteen corn states in the year 1900, and 
says was its value for each : 



STATK. 



Illinois 

Iowa 

Nebraska • 
Missouri .. 
KANSAS . 
Indiana •••. 

Texas 

Ohio 

Tennessee. 
Kentucky - 



Georgia 

Arkansas 

Alabama 

North Carolina 
Wisconsin • • 



Value. 



$ 84,536,392 
82,582,186 
65,233,320 
57,827,329 
52,438,602 
48,024,256 
38,522,568 
36,342,664 
27,928,961 
27,706,890 
19,448,132 
19,447,157 
17,026,446 
16,980,403 
16,350,589 



Kansas Still "Ranks." 

This table shows, as given out by the national author- 
ities, the rank in value of wheat raised in each of the 
leading fifteen states ; also, their rank in combined 
value of Wheat and Corn, and rank in value of Corn, for 
the vear 1900 : 



STATE 



KANSAS 

Minnesota 

California 

Texas 

Pennsylvania 
Nebraska •• •• 

Iowa 

Washington •• 
Missouri ••■ • 
South Dakota 

Illinois 

Maryland 

Oklahoma ••• 

Tennessee 

Oregon 



Rank iu 


Kauk ill val- 


Kank in 


Value of 


ue of Wheat 


Vahie 


Wheat. 


and Corn 


of Com. 


1 


1 


5 


2 


9 


23 


3 


21 


35 


4 


7 


7 


5 


12 


16 


6 


4 


3 


7 


3 


2 


8 


27 


43 


9 


5 


4 


10 


17 


22 


11 


2 


1 


12 


22 


26 


13 


24 


28 


14 


10 


9 


15 


30 


39 



63 




Kaffir Corn Fears No Drouth. 



I^ansas Could Buy 'Em. 

The following table is what Uncle Sam's Depart- 
ment of Agriculture Year Book shows as to the value of 
Corn and Wheat raised in each of the foremost fifteen 
states in the year 1900, named in the order of their rank: 



STATE 



KANSAS 

Illinois 

Iowa 

Nebraska 

Missouri 

Indiana 

Texas 

Ohio 

Minnesota 

Tennessee 

Kentucky 

Pennsylvania • 

Wisconsin 

Georgia 

North Carolina 



Rank 


Value ot Corn 
and Wheat 


1 


$97,807,362 


2 


96,044,916 


3 


95,443,138 


4 


78,378,327 


5 


69,700,758 


6 


53,512,447 


7 


53,495,952 


8 


42,394,616 


9 


41,671,294 


10 


37,168,871 


U 


36,292,454 


12 


29,321,115 


13 


24,777,212 


14 


24.208,708 


15 


zi,868,261 



Figured "Per Capiter.'* 

The table below shows, according to rank, the value 
of Wheat and Corn raised in each of the leading fifteen 
states for each inhabitant, in 1900, based on the United 
States census for that year, and the Agricultural Depart- 
ment Year Book, and also gives the age of each state : 



Rank, 

~T" 

2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 

11 

12 

13 

14 

15 



STATE 



Nebraska 

KANSAS 

Iowa ' 

Minnesota 

Missouri 

Indiana 

Illinois 

Tennessee 

Texas- 

Kentucky 

Wisconsin 

North Carolina. 

Georgia 

Ohio 

Pennsylvania •• 





Val. of Wheat 


Age 


and Corn per 




capita, 1900 


34 


$73.50 


40 


66.51 


55 


42.76 


43 


23.79 


80 


22.43 


85 


21.26 


83 


19.92 


105 


18.39 


56 


17.54 


109 


16.90 


53 


11.97 


112 


11.54 


113 


10 92 


99 


10.15 


114 


4.65 



65 



These figures should do much to correct any 
impressions existing that Kansas is not a premier 
agricultural domain, as they admirably serve to 
place the Sunflower State in her true light, 
showing that she has vanquished all competi- 
tors, almost unbeknov/n even to herself, and 
without apparent effort. Although the magni- 
tude of the State's agricultural importance has 
long been suspected by the well-informed, the 
actu-'l revelation of Kansas' real greatness in 
this respect through official figures has only of 
late been given conspicuous publicity. 

The statistics quoted proclaim that Kansas is 
without a peer in her line of undertaking; they 
inform us, among other things, that of the fifteen 
states leading in the value of wheat and corn 
crops in 1900, Kansas, at 40 years of age, pro- 
duced these staples to the extent of $66.51 worth 
per capita, exceeding the output of Iowa, age 55, 
by nearly $24 to each inhabitant; surpassing 
Minnesota the much touted wheat state, by 
nearly $43; Missouri, age 80, by over $44; 
Indiana, age 85, over $45; Illinois, age 83, by 
over $4650, and so on with corresponding in- 
creasing differences in favor of Kansas to the 
end of the list. 

It is also shown that Kansas leads its nearest 
rival, Illinois, in the value of wheat and corn 
produced in 1900 by over i^ million dollars, 
Iowa, Nebraska and Missouri following in the 
order named. The combined aggregate value of 
these crops in four of the states of the fifteen but 
little exceed that of Kansas alone, which amount 
is greater than the value of the same crops of 
Indiana and Ohio together, or more than the 
united values of Texas and Minnesota. 

Kansas, fortunately, is somewhat dissimilar 
from some of the states with which comparison 
is made, in that she is not so distinctly a one- 
crop state, and besides her usually fair rank as a 
corn-grower, she has been setting a mark as a 
wheat producer so far beyond that of her most 
successful emulator as to have created another 
class, in which she is alone, as well as annually 
producing all field crops in abundance. 

i.. •{ C. m 



It probably will be noted that in the foregoing 
tables, save one, the figures used are for the year 
iQoo. Some of the incredulous, or belittlers, if 
there be such, may point to that as a significant 
fact and erroneously infer that the showing is 
for a specially chosen year when every circum- 
stance was favoring for such presentation. In 
order, however, to further strengthen the State's 
position, and for the benefit of doubters, it will 
be abundantly sufficient to refer to the first table, 
where Uncle Sam's highest authority boldly de- 
clares that for the last five years ending with 
1900 Kansas produced corn and wheat worth 
seventeen million dollars more than any other 
state in the Union. 

These and similar facts, while of common 
knowledge at home, are not so widely known 
elsewhere, and the true situation warrants much 
greater publicity than has been heretofore given 
them. The definite knowledge that Kansas leads 
causes neither great surprise nor comment among 
those who are and have been best acquainted 
with her history, and the actual fact is calmly 
accepted by such as a matter of course. The 
only remarkable feature is the ease and effective- 
ness with which Kansas surpasses the supposed 
leaders; in fact, unconsciously as it were, indi- 
cating that there is no appreciable difference in 
her present standing from that formerly existing, 
other than the more clearly demonstrated and 
better understood proofs of uninterrupted devel- 
opment and genuine prosperity. 



^WHOSOEVER WILL, MAY COME." 



Ov 




Third Cutting of Ford County Alfalfa. 



(NOT IKRIGATED.) 



They're Buying IQansas 
Lands, 



They are after land in Kansas. 

They are coming with the cash. 
There is no use talking, neighbor, 

Kansas land has made a mash 
On the people of this country 

And it's now in hot demand. 
Mines of gold and seams of silver 

Hardly rank with Kansas land. 

They are after land in Kansas, 

From the East and from the West 
Comes a steady rush of people 

Who are looking for the best ; 
And they take a squint at Kansas, 

And as quickly as they can 
They get action on their money— 

And it's sure a winning plan. 

For the man who wants to purchase 

Title to a Kansas place 
Must get to the front and hustle 

Or he'll lose out in the race. 
Every day the rates are rising, 

And the man who wants to buy 
Should trot out his iron dollars 

Ere the prices strike the sky. 

-'Harmon D, Wilson^ in TopdbUf Capita 



69 



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